Anne Frank Memorial ceremony to feature Holocaust survivor Celina Kohn
The Town of Huntington’s 14th annual Anne Frank Memorial Ceremony is scheduled for June 17 at Arboretum Park in Melville, home of the Anne Frank Memorial Garden.
Holocaust survivor Celina Kohn, as well as students who participated in the Suffolk Y JCC’s Names, Not Numbers program, will be present to share their stories at the Town of Huntington’s 14th annual Anne Frank Memorial Ceremony next week.
In conjunction with the Suffolk Y JCC, Huntington Town Supervisor Ed Smyth will host the event this Tuesday, June 17 at Arboretum Park in Melville, home of the Anne Frank Memorial Garden. Unveiled by the town in June 2010, the garden symbolically captures the journey of Anne Frank’s life, serving as a tribute to Frank’s legacy of wisdom and genuine belief in the goodness of mankind and human nature, despite the ugliness of war and discrimination.
The ceremony will be held just five days after Frank’s June 12th birthday. She would have been 95 this year.
The Suffolk Y JCC participates in the national Holocaust awareness initiative Names, Not Numbers, a program in which students combine research, journalism, and video production to capture and share the stories of Holocaust survivors so that they are never forgotten. Next week, students will reflect on their interviews with Holocaust survivors, which are conducted so that the history and stories of the Holocaust can be maintained.
Born in Bleslawiec, Poland in 1931, Celina Kohn was just a child when German forces stormed her village in 1939, forcing her family to flee. Their homes were burned, and they lived in constant fear, moving to escape danger and stay ahead of the advancing German army. A Christian woman took Kohn in, but when that became too risky, she was sent to work posing as a Polish orphan. After the Russians liberated the area, Celina was miraculously reunited with her family. She later immigrated to Germany and then to the U.S. in 1948 to rebuild her life.
The Anne Frank Memorial ceremony will also feature special musical guest Toby Tobias, a South African-born guitarist and composer. Tobias shares his story of hope through music, during a time of war and upheaval across three continents, from Johannesburg to Jerusalem, then here in the United States.
The event will take place from 3 to 4:30pm in Arboretum Park’s Anne Frank Memorial Garden at 48 Threepence Drive in Melville. The event is open to the community; refreshments will be served.
